To Dance With The Dog
by ShamelessGirl1
Summary: Shikamaru Nara, is a young man working his way through collage in department ten tech support of Nara Inc. lives a relatively normal life now that he's 'recovered' from his bad breakup. What will happen when a dog lover moves in next door?
1. Prologue

**An :** Hey everyone this is my first fan fic that I've deemed worthy to publish on , it's unbeta'd as I am currently looking for a beta ( if you're interested please PM me), and criticism is completely welcome. Be as harsh as you like, I'd like to gauge my writing and know what needs improvement. So yeah…enjoy the prologue!

**Warnings:** Yaoi/ Shonen-Ai (leaning more towards Shonen-Ai because I really don't want this taken down), for those who don't know that means gay relationship/s, boyxboy. Also age difference – not too big but enough for one party to be under aged while the other is legal.

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters.**

* * *

**Prologue:**

Shikamaru stood in the kitchen pouring coffee for himself and his lover. He had to hold back a happy sigh as a small smile made its way onto his lips and thought of the sexy man who was waiting for him in the bedroom.

"Hey Shika, I need to talk to you."**_ His_** slightly raspy voice came from behind him, jerking the younger man from his thoughts.

"I thought you were staying in the bedroom." Shikamaru says and turns around to face a fully dressed **_Him_** with a smile, two mugs of steaming coffee in his hands.

The look on his lover's face made his smile falter a bit.

"What's wrong?" He asked

The older man looked at the floor.

"Shika, I'm leaving you."

Shikamaru's smile vanished completely.

"What?" The younger man asked trying to keep his voice stable, though he was failing miserably.

"I'm going back to **_Her_**."

"Why?"

"Because I want someone I can have a real family with, I'll never have that with _you_." _**He**_ says and looks up from the floor, meeting the young Nara's hazel eyes.

Never once, even after several very bad fights that had resulted in near break ups, had Shikamaru seen those brown eyes so cold. Looking at the floor the young man saw _**His**_ suitcase on the blue carpeted floor beside him.

"I see."

Shikamaru looks up and meets His slightly shocked gaze with jaded eyes and gave a sad smile.

"I'll leave these with you. Not like I'll need them anymore." _**He**_ said as he set his copy of the keys to their – now Shikamaru's - apartment on the counter.

"I love you." Shikamaru whispers unable to stop himself.

"Have a good life Shika." _**He**_ says as he picks up his suitcase then leaves the apartment.

The second he heard the door close, Shika broke.

Letting out a strangled gasp he set the coffee mugs on the counter and slid down to the cold tile floor, turning so his back was against the cupboard. He gasped again, tears beginning to sting his eyes as he pulled at the collar of his T-shirt.

It felt like someone stole the air from his lungs.

OoO OoO OoO

* * *

In the months after _**Him**_ leaving Shikamaru thrust himself into doing things with his friends especially Ino, Choji, Shino and Neji. The change in the Nara's behavior was quiet surprising to them but welcome. But after six months of fake smiles and lots of hanging out Ino was getting very worried about Shikamaru. Finally one day after their classes were over the group of friends gone to Ino's to have coffee while gripping about their teachers.

It wasn't long before the others went home saying they had to study or in Neji's case get ready for a date, leaving Ino and Shikamaru alone. After moments of heavy silence as Ino kept her cool jade eyes on the other teen that was currently seated on her cream love seat feeling rather small under her gaze.

"Shikamaru what's wrong? And don't you dare to tell me there's nothing bothering you."

Said boy sighed, troublesome woman.

"My lover left me."

"Lover, I didn't know you have a lover Shikamaru!" The blond exclaimed in disbelief.

"_Had_ a lover Ino, I_ had_ a lover." He grumbles

"Oh…sorry…but heck I thought you were asexual or something, you never batted an eye at the girls and wouldn't even spare a glance for the guys…" Ino said as she sets her coffee down on the glass side table and moves to sit next to her longtime friend.

"Why didn't you tell me Shika?"

"A lot of reasons Ino, it was troublesome with the amount of reasons. One of them being it wasn't _exactly_ legal when we started dating."

"_Legal?_ Shikamaru Nara, are you telling me you were dating someone older than you?" Ino asked shrewdly, narrowing her eyes dangerously.

"I just said that Ino, I was sixteen when we started dating, he was _twenty-five_. Twenty-five Ino and he was a teacher. What was I supposed to do, tell you only to have you spew the news to the entire school? Don't deny it Ino, you would have, you use to be a legendary gossip in high school. "Shikamaru defended himself, leveling a hazel glare at her.

"_He?_ It was a guy?_ And_ he was a teacher! Dear God, Shikamaru you can really pick 'em huh? An older man and a teacher."

"You don't need to rub it in. I know I was stupid, and after _two years_ of dating he dumped me to go back to his ex-girlfriend who had been dating someone else the entire duration of our relationship Ino. "

"Oh Shika, I'm sorry." Ino whispered and pulled the young man into a tight hug which he returned. "Who was he?"

Shikamaru sighed, he knew the question was coming and he knew that he would have to answer her. "**Asuma Sarutobi**."

OoO OoO OoO

**AN:** so that's a wrap! Um hopefully I'll have the first chapter up within the week or so (give or take a few days, unless anything comes up) so if you enjoyed it you'll be able to read some more, if not then well…thanks for reading anyways. Please review so I can improve things.

Bye ! ~ Shameless


	2. Chapter 1 : Meeting The Dog

An : Here's chapter 1, thanks to the people who reviewed, it means a lot even if there were only two of you, it brightened my day so much and helped me to edit this chapter and upload it much quicker than I thought it would be. BTW still looking for a beta, so if you're interested let me know!

Warnings : same as prologue.

Disclaimer : I don't own anything except the plot.

Ages :

Shikamaru, Sai– 18 (close to19) and 19 – just starting college – (they were coming up on graduating in the prologue)

Choji, Ino - 19

Neji, Tenten, Lee , Temari – second year into college

Kiba, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Hinata, Gaara –18– just graduated from the florescent lit hell known as high school (BE FREE MY FRIENDS, BE FREE! sorry I just had to do that! XD)

Asuma – 28

* * *

**Chapter 1**

**A YEAR AND A HALF LATER**

"Hello, this is tech support my name is Shikamaru what's the problem today?" Shikamaru asked for the thousandth time today. After few minutes of listening to a rather loud and slightly frantic voice explain about how the owner of the voice – His name was Naruto, and yes sadly, this wasn't the first time they had spoken, it was actually about the fifth time this week in fact, the guy called about everything – had gone to use his roommates laptop and it was no longer functioning correctly and he just had to fix it before said roommate came home from work.

'How troublesome.' Shikamaru thought to himself as he started the standard list of questions.

"Have you tried turning it on and off again?"

_"That's the problem! It won't turn on!"_

"When was the last time you charged it?" Shikamaru asked and pinched the bridge of his nose.

_"…."_ Naruto's silence was welcome but troublesome.

"Naruto, try plugging it in and waiting for an hour, if that doesn't work call again and tell them that you want to talk to Me, Shikamaru Nara, department ten." The lazy young man sighed heavily.

Absently he wondered why he ended up getting stuck with the number ten. In high school it was his number in basketball. And now in college he and his friends were deemed 'team ten'. Even his apartment number was…guess what…ten! The number ten seemed to cling to him like some sort of demented monkey.

_"Thanks buddy!" _And with that the annoying caller that was Naruto hung up to go charge his roommates laptop.

"What a drag…" Shikamaru growled at nothing before glancing at the clock, his shift was almost over; after he got done he could go nap for the rest of the day.

With that somewhat happy thought he picked up the ringing phone on his desk.

"Hello, this is tech support, my name is Shikamaru what's the problem today?" He asked

* * *

***** 20 minutes later*****

* * *

Shikamaru had finally managed to get out of the office and was on his way home through the busy Kohona traffic. Unlike most of the people at his work place The Nara was only nineteen, and extremely lazy but ironically got the most work done in his department. Sighing as he pulled into the parking lot of his apartment building and parked his motorcycle the young Nara removed his helmet and hung it from one of the handles on his bike.

'So troublesome…' Shikamaru thought and walked up the stairs to his apartment.

It was the one Asuma had helped pick out and had actually lived with him in for a while; he just couldn't be bothered to move into the dorms at Kohona U, it was too troublesome. Or so he told himself. Just thinking about the older man sent a pangs of sorrow, regret, and longing through Shikamaru's entire being. He pulls his keys from his pocket and unlocks the door then walks in, kicking it shut behind him. No he wouldn't bother to lock it, he never did when he was home, he never could figure out why though since he lived in a pretty bad neighborhood.

A year and a half later after Asuma disappeared from his life and Shikamaru was still waiting for him to walk through the door, a cigarette hanging from his lips that would be turned up in a lopsided smile.

'But he won't, he never will.' The teen thinks and lies down on his couch, propping his head and feet on the arm rests and kicking off his boots in the process. Asuma had left a nasty sized hole in Shikamaru's life, one that just didn't seem to want and be filled by anything the Nara tried shoving into it.

Sighing again he pulled a rather crushed pack of cigarettes and a lighter that Asuma had gave him out of his back pocket and lit one of the sad-looking cancer sticks, bringing it to his tanned lips and inhaling slowly. He still missed the older man, though he'd admit it to no one except Ino. No matter how hard he fought against it.

Why?

Simple: because he was stupid enough to fall in love without thinking things through.

Shikamaru exhaled a cloud of smoke and fold an arm behind his head.

"Asuma, you bastard, even though you're gone you're still on my mind all the time." He mumbled bitterly.

Unbidden, memories flooded through his mind, Asuma's smile, Asuma's laugh, their first kiss, the first time Asuma said those three little words that made the younger heart flutter like a freakin' humming bird...and the moment he walked away.

"DAMMIT!" He shouted and sat up, cigarette clenched in his teeth, covering his face with his hand before letting it drop limply back to his side.

_'It's been a year already…why can't I just move on? It's not like he's coming back…I had six months of therapy to tell me that… '_

Just over two months after Shikamaru had finally graduated high school, Shikamaru had started getting shrink sessions from Ino's father to help with the depression that had settled in since he didn't really have anything to do until the new school year.

A soft knock at the door drags the young man from his thoughts, sighing he stands up and walks over to look out the peep-hole. Yes he actually used the peep-hole on his door, how else was he supposed to avoid annoying people who came to visit him?

No one he knew – the person was too tall and thin-, but hey what the hell? Why not open the door to a total stranger with a dark hoodie pull up around their face, especially in this oh so wonderful neighborhood?

Sighing yet again – this time questioning his sanity - Shikamaru opened the door and raised an eyebrow at the knocker.

Said knocker pulled back his hood to show a head of shaggy chocolate-colored hair, which he shook out of his golden-colored eyes and grinned at Shikamaru, showing off sharp-looking canines, the upside down red triangle tattoos on his cheeks giving him a wild look.

"Hey buddy, I'm Kiba Inuzuka*, I moved in next door today." He spoke with an energetic tone of voice while extending a hand.

"Shikamaru Nara." Shikamaru sighed and hesitantly took Kiba's hand for a hand shake.

There was an awkward silence that hung in the air for a moment as the two took in one another, or rather Kiba took in the sight that was Shikamaru.

The young man wore jeans that hung loosely on him -if it weren't for that belt they probably would fall off when he moved, a black band t-shirt, brown hair pulled up into spikey pony tail on top of his head, cigarette hanging from between his tanned lips.

'My neighbor is…..sexy…. 'Kiba thought in pleasant surprise, praising every god he knew that he wasn't stuck next to someone like Shino again like he was while he was in boarding school.

Shikamaru's thoughts were something more along the lines of. ' my neighbor smells like dog….he probably has a dog….he looks like a dog person….god I hope it doesn't bark…that would be troublesome…' He concluded with a mental sigh.

After realizing that his new neighbor had no intentions of leave soon Shikamaru stood aside. "Wanna come inside?"

"Sure!" Kiba replied walking inside.

"You have a dog?"

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

"You seem like a dog person…that and I could smell it on you." Shikamaru said wrinkling his nose as he closed the door.

"Oh sorry, I guess I've just gotten use to the smell." Kiba sheepishly grins and rubs the back of his head with one of his hands.

"Hn, want something to drink?"

"Sure!"

"What do you want?"

"Anything with sugar." Kiba said sat down on Shikamaru's leather couch.

"Here." The young Nara handed Kiba a can of coke.

"Thanks."

Another awkward silence as Kiba took a drink of his coke.

"So how old are you Shikamaru?" The dog-boy asked and set his coke on a coaster – supplied by Shikamaru, he might be lazy but rings on his furniture bothered him – on the coffee table.

"Nineteen."

"I'm seventeen almost eighteen by the way because my birthday is coming up in July!" Kiba nearly shouted, grasping the chance for conversation like a lifeline in the sea of awkwardness he was feeling.

"That's real interesting." Shika said and yawned as he sat down in the leather layZboy to the left of where Kiba was on the couch.

"So what do you do?"

"Hm?"

"For work." Kiba clarified.

"At the moment I work in tech support."

"Oh…well I train dogs with my mom, we have a house and kennel out in the country but now we're having some renovations done on the house so we're staying here over the summer." Kiba explains

"I see."

"Do you like working in Tech support?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Why do you care?" Shikamaru asks getting tired of this troublesome game of twenty questions.

"Just trying to make conversation is all." Kiba says with a shrug.

"It's the same thing all the time. Dealing with more than a few idiots, senior citizens and the very few who actually have a problem. "

"Oh….is it really that bad?"

"Yes." The smoker deadpanned as he ground the butt of his cigarette in the ash tray.

"Oh…well I like working with the dogs, my mom not so much." Kiba said and chuckled, taking another sip of his coke.

"Hm."

"If you could work anywhere where would you work?"

"Why?"

"Cause I wanna know." The dog-boy said as if it was an real answer.

Shikamaru's eyebrow twitched as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"I guess I'd like to become a writer."

Kiba looked at his neighbor who now had his eyes closed, carefully taking the features of his face. Shikamaru had a long straight nose, thin tanned lips that looked slightly chapped, high cheek bones and deep-set eyes that had dark rings under them that told him the older male had trouble sleeping. As the subject of his observation turned his head, the metallic glint of silver caught his eye and made him notice the small silver stud in Shikamaru's left ear, making him wonder if he had a matching one on the other side.

"Why? I don't take you for the scholarly type." Kiba commented.

Shikamaru snorted and opened his almond-shaped hazel eyes.

"I'm no scholar; writing has nothing to do with being a 'scholar'. I just like the idea of being able to create something with words. It's a rather fascinating Idea isn't it? To make an entire world with words, able to create an escape for the one that we're in now and find a happier on in such a simple thing as the pages of a book, it's a wonderful thing. "

After Asuma left reading had become one of Shikamaru's favorite pass times, as chess and shogi reminded him too much of the older man.

For the first time Shikamaru offered a small half-smile as his eyes glazed, clearly thinking of something that was far away from where they were now. It was funny, that small smile made Kiba's heart flutter with happiness in a way that no woman's smile ever had.

"What about you?" Shikamaru asked shaking himself from his thoughts and looking at the young man in front of him with a slightly curious glint in his hazel gaze.

"Well I'm going to school to become a veterinarianl, I love animals, especially dogs. " The wild-looking male said with a wide grin that stretched his tattoos, giving him a slightly more – if possible - feral look.

The pineapple haired man gave Kiba the once over, taking the faded jeans that covered well-toned legs – and ass, Shikamaru would admit he glanced very briefly - had the knees ripped out, the heavy work boots and the dark hoodie that kept the dog-lover's chest and arms covered with baggy fabric.

'Though if his upper body is anything like his lower half…' Shikamaru's thoughts trailed off before he shook his head. What was he thinking?

People with dogs were troublesome.

* * *

An : Sorry for cutting it short here but I was having writers block at the time and still had to edit it… *sigh* any way I hope you like this chapter of To Dance With The Dog, review if you wish but I'm not going to ask ( god knows I don't do it on half the stories I read, im too lazy XP) But it would make me really happy , the three reviews I got for the prologue put me on cloud nine and made the work of editing and finishing up this chapter fly by, so thank you SO SO SO SO SO SO MUCH ! Thank you also to the people who added this story to the watch and favorites lists, it means so much to me. ^_^

*I'm really sorry if i spelled Kiba's surname wrong, feel free to correct me if it is.

(Re * : thank you to 01011000 for the correction of Kiba's surname. - Blackbird)

Well I have another chapter to write & edit so…

Bye ! ~Shamless


	3. Not a chapter

Hello to all the readers of To Dance With The Dog,

This isn't Shameless, this is her friend, Blackbird.

Long story short, Shamless has been in a car accident and currently has been nursing a broken wrist, two broken ribs, a cracked collar bone and a broken nose because of the damn air bag.

I was talking to her the other day and she said she hadn't updated for awhile before the accident (which I have been lecturing her about she will update at least once a month after this unless she has a real emergency) and that she felt bad because she basically dropped off the face of the earth with no explanation as so many fanfic writers seem to do.

She has half a chapter written up and I'm going to finish the other half and hopefully (no promises as I do get really busy around the holidays and she's most likely lied to me about how much she has done) will have it posted before Christmas.

Also, before I forget, she wanted to thank 01011000 for their correction of Kiba's surname, it will be edited right after I post this.

Thank you for your patience,

- Blackbird


	4. Chapter 2 : A Warning

**A/N : Sorry it's kind of late, day after Christmas, I tried to get it done before hand but…well let's just say Shameless is a fucking liar and having family over for Christmas is a bitch that's pretty time-consuming.**

**To dance with the Dog Chapter 2**

The harsh sound of an alarm clock graded harshly against the edges of Kiba's sleep riddled mind. Reaching out blindly towards the source of the unholy noise – not bothering to poke his head out from under the covers while mentally cursing the fact that he forgot to turn it off the night before - the brunette slammed his fist down on the circular snooze button and quickly retracted his arm back into the cocoon of blankets and pillows that surrounded him.

"Kiba? Kibaaa, wake up!" The warm raspy voice of Atsuko* Inuzuka - Kiba's grandmother who happened to live down the hall came through the door to his bedroom. Now the Inuzuka male loved his grandmother but he couldn't help but think he never would have told her where his spare key was hidden if he knew she would abuse its power. A fine example of this would be how she was currently waking him up at seven A.M. on a Saturday morning.

Let it never be said that the Inuzuka family are morning people.**

Kiba huffed and hauled himself out of bed nearly tripping over Akamaru in the process as the large white mountain of a dog was sleeping at the side of his bed.

"I'm up Nana! ***" The brunette shouted back as he peeled off his pajama bottoms and well-worn t-shirt, trading them for loose jeans and a thin long-sleeved black t-shirt.  
After he had finished dressing Kiba walked out to greet his grandmother who was making breakfast in the kitchen, leaving his bedroom door open for the lazy dog that was still sleeping on his floor.

"Morning." The young man yawned as he sat down at the crappy table he had.

Atsuko looked over her shoulder as she turned off the stove and smiled at her grandson.

"Good morning Kiba, milk or juice?"

"Coffee please." He replied as he had a plate of scrambled eggs and toast placed in from of him.

Without warning the old woman slapped him in back of the head, a scowl on her wrinkled lips.

"Milk or juice Kiba?" She growled out, narrowing her golden eyes down at him, silently daring him to repeat what he just said.

"Orange juice please." Kiba said quickly knowing better than to argue with her when she used that tone of voice. It was the same one that the entire body of women in the Inuzuka family use when they were about to slap you silly, which must be taught to them because Atsuko had married into said family.

"Alright dear." She said with a smile, back to her cheery self.

It had always scared Kiba how the women in his family could change so quickly like that. One minute they would be close to biting your head off and the next all smiles and giggles and shit like that, well maybe not giggles, per say more like cruel laughter as they watched you humiliate yourself or imagined you getting mauled by wild animals.

You never knew what was running through their heads.

Maybe all women were this way towards their family when no one else was around?

Atsuko set a glass of orange juice on the table and she sat down across from him.

"Thank you Nana." He before he dug in.

"I saw you go over to Shikamaru's apartment last night. What did you two talk about?" Atsuko asked conversationally.

"I didn't see you." Kiba said slowly looking slightly suspicious.

"I was just coming up the stairs from grocery shopping." She brushed him off with a wave of her hand. "Now tell me what you two talked about."

"Nothing really, just getting to know my neighbor, he seems like a cool guy you know?" The younger brunette shrugged, downing his orange juice, he wouldn't out right say he'd like to get to know him better in bed. Well he could, just not to his grandmother.

"Kiba, I'll say this once, and only once. " Atsuko said looking serious. "That young man has been through enough pain. You are my grandson, but if you hurt Shikamaru I'll castrate you."

Kiba swallowed harshly and crossed his legs, gently setting one hand on his crotch as if she would carry out her threat at that very moment.

"Why?" He asked cautiously, not wanting to set her off at all and most certainly not where there were knives at hand.

"It's not my place to tell you, but I will say this, Shikamaru is a very fragile young man underneath his cool demeanor." The Inuzuka woman replied and took his dirty dishes and silver ware to the sink.

Kiba frowned and stood up.

" I'm going to take Akamaru for a walk." He said, grabbing a thick leather leash as he left the room, escaping the heavy atmosphere.

- Short time skip-

Kiba sighed as he walked Akamaru down the concrete steps of the apartment building, his mind wandering to the hazel eyed man who lived across the hall from him.

Shikamaru the sexy neighbor whom had his very own grandmother threatening to castrate him, because under that cool attitude was a 'very fragile' young man.

Kiba couldn't help but wonder what had endeared him to the old woman so much that she'd try to ward him off like that. And Atsuko wasn't one to present others as weak, so what could make her call the Nara fragile?

Whatever it was the mystery of it only made Kiba want to get to know Shikamaru more and he would if it was the last thing he did.

* * *

Back in his apartment Shikamaru felt a tingle go down his spine, he had a feeling things were going to get very troublesome soon.

* * *

*** Atsuko - 温子 – warm child**

**** This was where I started writing if you were wondering, though you probably weren't.**

*****Nana – Kiba seems like a Nana person if you ask me. – Blackbird**

**A/N: Sorry it's so short, but like I said above I was really busy and I was expecting a bit more than two paragraphs and a half-finished sentence, Shameless has asked me to help co-write this story, mostly for chapters that are mainly Kiba centered. I might, but it depends of if you liked this or not, so review and tell us what you think.**

**Late Happy holidays,**

**Blackbird**


End file.
